garish
/ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/adjective
garish is spelled G-A-R-I-S-H: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, garish means “Overly ostentatious; so colorful as to be in bad taste” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in garish?
| Letters | 6: G-A-R-I-S-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 48,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is garish?
Garish appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce garish?
- UK /ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/
- British /ˈɡɛːɹɪʃ/
- US /ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/
Garish has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-garish.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of garish
- more garish comparative
- most garish superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does garish mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Overly ostentatious; so colorful as to be in bad taste.
The dress fits her well, but the pattern is rather garish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Garish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense overly ostentatious; so colourful as to be in bad taste:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | criard, tape-à-l'œil, voyant |
| German | grell, protzig, auffallend, aufdringlich, knallig, knallbunt |
| Portuguese | garrido |
| Spanish | gárrido, chillón, vistoso, colorinche (Lat. Am.), charro, estrambótico |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does garish come from?
Unknown, possibly from obsolete Middle English gawren (“to stare”) which is of uncertain origin, probably from Old Norse gá (“to watch, heed”) or gaurr (“rough fellow”) (Proto-Indo-European *gʰow-rós, from *gʰew- (“to be angry”)). Compare with English gaw.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).